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About a month ago I shared how life wasn’t quite going to plan, but how that can be okay if we’re willing to step back and see God’s big picture. Well it continued to be a busy month, and this is about the first time I’ve had to blog since then.

One of the best parts of the past month though was a conference I helped to organize for the Presbytery of Hamilton (the regional council my church is a part of). We called it: “Evangelism, Replanting and Renewal: Hope for Churches Facing the Iceberg.” Our speaker was the Rev. Graham Singh, who grew up Presbyterian but came back to church through Holy Trinity Brompton (the home church of the Alpha Course) in the Church of England. Graham is now an Anglican church planter who has restarted churches in England and Canada.

It was a great day reflecting on the possibilities for spreading the Good News of Jesus and what is involved in empowering our churches to do this again. There is hope! Holy Trinity Brompton has restarted 50 churches in southern England; Graham is leading St. Jax Church (a replanted Anglican church in the heart of Montreal); and here in Hamilton our Presbytery has successfully replanted Heritage Green Church in Stoney Creek. Yet all of these hopeful stories have two things in common: 1) a deep love for Jesus and their neighbours 2) and a willingness to do church very differently than in the past.

A number of people have asked me for the message I preached at the start of the conference so I’ve included an audio file and a downloadable copy of the manuscript below.